Posts tagged ‘water’

This recipe was passed to my mom while I was in high school. We had recently moved to the Czech Republic and were desperately missing some good ol’ Campbell’s tomato soup to got along with our grilled cheese on winter Sundays after church. I live in the States now and can buy Campbells whenever I want. Truth be told, this recipe is good enough to overcome my childhood nostalgia. For those of you know me well, this is no small feat. I hold rigidly (obnoxiously?) to some of my childhood traditions.

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter until golden. Add the flour a little at a time, stirring quickly until it forms a thick paste. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add water in small amounts, stirring vigorously until it is absorbed by the flour. Add the milk and heat but do not boil. Add sugar, herbs and salt & pepper.

Variation:

Add 1 T of curry powder. This is how Wifey’s mom always prepared it growing up. For years, Wifey couldn’t figure out why Campbells tasted so much better when her mom made it instead of her friend’s mom. They both came out of the can, so why did her mom’s taste so much better? She found out years later about the addition of curry.

We just popped open our first attempt at homemade ginger ale. It was good. Plenty of room for improvements, but I have some ideas. The first issue was the carbonation. It was mildly fizzy at best. I did some research and figured out that if you brew it at a higher PSI, you’ll get more carbonation. Considering I made mine in a milk jug, I suppose the flatness is to be expected. The second issue was sweetness. It probably could’ve used a tad more sugar. Then again, maybe we are all just used to having our drinks overbearingly, diabetes-ly sweet. Anyways, here’s the recipe and method:

Grate the ginger root (a food processor might be your best friend here). Put the ginger in a small saucepan with the water. Bring this to a boil and dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved and the water is boiling, remove it from the heat, cover it and let it steep for an hour. Once this is done, strain the mixture (removing all solids) and let it cool to room temperature. Once at room temp, dissolve the yeast and lemon juice. Pour this mixture into a clean, empty 2-litre. Fill all but an inch with filtered water. Set it on the counter and wait for 24-48 hrs until the bottle is very firm to squeeze (but before the pressure causes it to explode). Refrigerate and enjoy when cool.

On selecting the ginger: I grabbed a hung that was about fist size. I’ll probably go a little bigger than that next time.

A final caveat: I brewed it super spicy, because that’s what I like. It still wasn’t spicy enough for me, though. My goal was to get something like Blenheim Ginger Ale (the most absolutely incredible ginger ale ever made). I’m not quite there, but it was a respectable first try.